I like trying to figure out how to make Photoshop do interesting things. It's sorta like a puzzle to figure out how to string together the built-in tools and filters to generate cool results. This is one of the things I've been working on recently: dragon and reptile scales and skin texture (also suitable for dinosaurs and snakes, of course). I've seen others use Photoshop's stained glass filter to put a simple pattern on their artwork, but I wanted to take it to the next level and generate something that's a little more realistic looking.

So here's my result! Believe it or not, I didn't draw or paint a single thing by hand in this texture. It's completely generated using a combination of built-in functions in Photoshop. I wrote up a tutorial on how to do this which you can read and try out if you're interested:

Click here to begin the tutorial

Feel free to use this technique on your artwork. If you do use it, please send me a note so I can see the result. I'd also appreciate a link back to the tutorial so others can see how it's done. If you like this tutorial, I have more on the same site:

www.photoshop-dragon.com

Enjoy!